


Name Shouting

by criminal_intent



Category: Halt and Catch Fire
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-02 22:38:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4076425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/criminal_intent/pseuds/criminal_intent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cameron is frustrated with why she yelled out Joe's name when she was attacked at the bar. Donna confronts her about it the next morning. One-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Name Shouting

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters or the storyline in this fic. If I did, I’d probably have more money than I do now and would not be living in the apartment that I live in.

A/N: This is my first fanfic since I was about 13, so be nice! It’s been a looong time since I’ve written something for fun. College will take the life right out of you. I hope you like this!

 

**Name Shouting**

 

Donna and Cameron set the IBM computers down in Cameron’s room, laughing again at their triumph.

“Well, I can’t say that wasn’t a little bit fun,” Donna said as she walked out to the front of the house.

Cameron laughed, “You and me both. That was some teamwork right there. Hey, thanks for everything tonight.... It probably would have gone a lot differently if you hadn’t been there. Go home and get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow.”

“You, too. See you in the morning.” Donna gave her a smile and stepped out of the door. Cameron watched her drive away before finally shutting the door with a sigh.

She had come to love this time of night. When all the coder monkeys went back home and the house fell into silence. It gave her a chance to think without someone yelling at her for some gaming nonsense or network mishaps. But sometimes, nights like these were the last thing she needed. Cameron walked back to her room and shut the door.

_Joe? What the hell had that been about?_ Cameron fell back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Her mind kept flashing back to when Rick had attacked her at the bar. Why on earth had she yelled Joe’s name? She hadn’t seen him in almost two years and they hardly left things on good terms. He had never saved her from a situation like that before and there’s no way she could possibly be missing that man, so why did she do that? What provoked her to say that? He was God-knows-where and he definitely wasn’t in that bar.

A little voice in the back of her head said, _Quit kidding yourself, Cameron. You still miss Joe. Might as well accept it and move on._

She couldn’t deny that she missed having someone besides Donna constantly challenging her and the aftermath of being “stuck” just didn’t have the same effect anymore. _But that still doesn’t explain why you shouted his name tonight._

Cameron ran her hands through her hair and gave out a little yell of frustration before getting up and walking over to her computer. She needed to take her mind off this and sleep was definitely not coming for a while after all that had happened tonight.

She booted up her Commodore and started a new game. She saw that she had a request to play from someone named “USER85”. She hit accept and led her way to a solid victory.

CAMHOWE: Good game. New Subscriber?  
USER85: Yup. Just signed on.  
CAMHOWE: Another round?  
USER85: Sure.

Cameron smiled at the screen. Maybe Donna was onto something about the messaging system on the network? After easily winning several more games, Cameron wished USER85 a good night and went to bed.

* * *

 

The next morning, Donna walked into Cameron’s room as soon as she got to the house. Cameron didn’t seem to register her appearance until she shut the door and sat down in a chair next to her desk.

“What?” Cameron asked, looking at her before staring back at her computer.

“Hey, so about last night--” Donna began but was cut off by Cameron, who turned abruptly to look at her.

“I know. I shouldn’t have made the deal with that guy. You already gave me the third-degree last night. What else do you have to say?” Cameron snapped.

Donna raised her eyebrows. “Well, good morning to you, too. But no, that’s actually not what I was referring to. When that guy attacked you last night, you yelled out something. You yelled out Joe’s name.”

Cameron stared at her for a few seconds before once again turning back to her computer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t say anything.”

“I mean, you probably don’t remember saying it, but I heard it. Are you seeing Joe again? We don’t need him jeopardizing this company like he did with Cardiff.”

“No, Donna, I haven’t talked to him in two years. And I definitely did not say anyone’s name, let alone his. Why are we talking about this right now?”

Donna looked at her skeptically, but continued, “I was just wondering. Gordon had gotten a letter from him a while back and it sounded like he was living in Austin with a girlfriend.”

Cameron’s eyes immediately shot up to her before saying, “What he does with his life is none of our business. I don’t know why you’d think I would care about Joe having a girlfriend.”

Donna stared at her for a minute, but decided to change the subject. “So I hear John Bosworth is getting out of jail tomorrow?”

Cameron smiled and turned back to her computer. “Yeah, I’m picking him up tomorrow.” The phone rang shrilly next to her. “Hey, I have to get this. Can we talk later?” She didn’t give Donna a chance to answer before she picked up the phone and began chatting with a complaining user.

Donna walked out of her room. _Yeah, I highly doubt we’ll be talking about you yelling Joe’s name anytime soon, but hell, I’ll give it a try...._

A crash sounded from the living room and Donna ran out to see what it was, completely forgetting about her conversation with Cameron.


End file.
